You Might Have Missed it, but Blockchain is Now Mainstream

this episode was brought to you by morningbrew hi welcome to another cold fusion video blockchain and cryptocurrencies burst onto the scene just after the 2008 financial crash it was a symbolic warning that something might be wrong with our current economic system 12 years later the majority of structural problems since 2008 haven't been fixed in fact many of those problems are much worse so what happened to the crypto and blockchain revolution and why haven't we been hearing about it well the fact is a lot has happened in that time but the news cycle is just focusing on other things in this episode we'll take a look at some of the major milestones that are taking place in the field of business finance and even government key aspects of the financial system might be starting to change right in front of our eyes it's worth noting that although we've covered a few crypto scams on this channel as entertaining as they were there are also a mountain of legitimate uses for this technology as you'll soon see you are watching cold fusion tv so starting off if you haven't watched my 2017 blockchain series yet it's a good watch to get some background one viewer even used it as the basis for his final year thesis i'll leave a link for that series below so what is blockchain to summarize blockchain is an unalterable digital list this digital list has a record of who owns what the key point is that the list can't be tampered with this is because an up-to-date copy of this list of who owns what is stored on the computer of every member in the system if someone tries to mess with an entry on this list it's not going to match the rest of the entries in the system this renders the tampering invalid that's a very oversimplified overview but that's the core idea and this very idea is proving to be a powerful tool from blockchain came cryptocurrencies and a lot of other technologies the biggest story in blockchain right now has to be defy or decentralized finance imagine being able to take out a loan without having to speak to anyone or even open up a bank account or gain a six percent interest on your savings deposit without a bank signing anything or even interacting with anyone either this and much more already exist today and it's gotten simple enough that anyone with a phone can pick it up and take part all you need is a defy app and some money that you want to spend it works something like this you deposit your dollars or government currency and the app automatically converts it to a crypto of your choosing you can use these holdings as collateral to loan against you can also get interest on your deposit depending on how volatile the crypto is the less volatile the higher the interest rate defy applications are built on top of a cryptocurrency called ethereum ethereum unlike bitcoin manages to do this through something called a smart contract a smart contract is essentially a digital contract made of code its job is to replace what a human intermediary would do the code in the smart contract writes up the terms of the agreement and enforces the rules all within the same program no humans required some smart contracts are written so they're tied to real-world assets an example of this is something called a stable coin a stable coin derives its value from an underlying currency like the us dollar for example other smart contracts can be tied to gold or a stock the possibilities are endless and in my view throughout history making complicated but valuable things easy for the average person to use has been the hallmarks of every game changer so d fire could be a game changer or just another bubble you'd have to be very careful of putting any of your money in these things since it's at such an early stage and there's probably many bad actors out there but regardless the concept is very interesting and i'll be keeping my eye on it continuing on in the world of finance with blockchain the world's largest refiner of newly minted gold the perth mint which holds over 3.2 billion us dollars of gold within its vaults is launching the first government gold guaranteed digital asset titled perth mint gold token this means that through the use of cryptocurrency you can own gold within a vault this is in stark contrast to other tokens on the market which are often not including stable coins backed by nothing of value in the real world but rather by a combination of its rarity and the effort it takes to mine seeing that you're interested in a video like this and presumably the latest in finance tech or business you might like to try out this episode's sponsor morning brew morning brew gives you a free daily newsletter each weekday these newsletters go straight to your inbox and makes news less dry and boring during a quick browse this week i recently learnt about flippy the robot a robot that can make burgers using computer vision it's the first of its kind and is projected to increase profit margins by 300 percent i think the morning brew format is good because you can be up to date with key news stories without having to manually trundle across multiple sources so really there's no reason not to subscribe to morning brew if you're interested in business technology or finance it's completely free and takes less than 15 seconds to subscribe click the link in the description below to subscribe to morning brew today okay continuing on with the episode in italy 85 of banks now use a blockchain system called corda previously banks in italy sent physical tapes between each other in order to reconsolidate transfers between the banks this meant that the process could take between one to two months to complete now with the help of quarter authenticated and reliable reconsolidation is completed within 24 hours it seems that every bank and financial institution is finding uses for blockchain and cryptocurrencies a couple of swiss banks have recently been given approval to offer cryptocurrency trading mastercard visa and paypal are all pivoting their services to incorporate crypto and blockchain we're very excited about blockchain technology uh we have been working with it for quite a while uh we have partners we work with it on we have a product we're piloting that uses distributed ledger technology uh blockchain we think uh is is a potentially very valuable technology jp morgan successfully tested their multiple currency prototype with singaporean financial authorities this was five years in the making this payment network aims to make cheaper and faster international money transfers and is already being rolled out okay so next let's take a look at blockchain and business in logistics the use of middlemen tracking and storage can create problems that drastically impact a company's efficiency chronicled a california-based company is integrating blockchain and internet of things systems in order to create a more efficient logistics system they recently partnered with a large pharmaceutical company to help transport their products with the authentication of each product's origin this process not only makes transportation more efficient but it also makes it more difficult for bad actors to try and intercept the supply chain to switch out items with counterfeit products blockchain is also being implemented by some tech giants earlier this year microsoft introduced lithian a blockchain that integrates into microsoft's cloud computing service azure this allows developers to integrate blockchain solutions into their apps last year samsung integrated a blockchain wallet into their smartphones with the unveiling of the s10 this gives way to the use of decentralized apps or d-apps d-apps give developers the opportunity to integrate blockchain into mobile applications while it's still in its infancy d-apps ranging from health to social media platforms and charity are already being developed far from the offices of big banks or mechanical manufacturing flaws the famed cryptocurrency bitcoin is helping advance the semiconductor industry interestingly the pursuit of faster and more efficient problem solving has increased demand for semiconductors due to bitcoin mining bitcoin mining is the act that gives the coin its value by making it a rarity the mining process is credited by some analysts as one of the leading causes of recent advancements in the semiconductor industry in south africa tamela ramaphosa son of the president is trying to tackle the issue of illegal poaching which has ravaged the country's wildlife in the name of greed his product stud x works in partnership with ibm to use the internet of things and blockchain to verify the ownership of animals the idea is to track an individual animal's movements heart rate and more and put all of this data on a blockchain this creates another layer of difficulty for poachers to illegally sell and illegally attain animals so statics is the first cryptocurrency for rare and endangered wildlife it's an investment platform for profit so it's the digital equivalent of a stock exchange for for wildlife and livestock certain percentages now within the transaction cost as well between the farmers and ourselves will be dedicated towards conservation so the whole idea is that we protect animals from hunters predators approaches and disease and that's what the whole idea of owning a token is is that you're supporting anti-poaching technology and you support supporting anti-poaching initiatives towards supporting this animal in its natural environment so in this last section we're going to see how blockchain is starting to make its way into government recently the united states postal service just issued a blockchain patent this was to secure mail-in voting disclaimer i'm not an american and i have no stake in this issue i'm just giving you the information on this one china japan canada britain south korea and many other countries are talking about making big moves into cryptocurrencies meanwhile the united states and other major global economies are struggling to change and adapt to the rapid pace of blockchain development emerging economies across asia and africa are embracing advancements in fintech and blockchain these efforts provide attractive economic opportunities that don't discriminate based on nationality wealth or credit legacy financial institutions may struggle to compete unproductive participants could lose market share some analysts are predicting a return to healthy competition in the financial sector we'll have to wait and see on that one the central banks of governments around the world are focusing their efforts on blockchain continuing a trend of developing a digital version of existing currencies britain is reviewing the development of a digital pound thailand is in the development for its own digital currency and japan is planning trials for their digital yen but china is leading the way the central bank of china is beginning to test the digital yuan this was done through a selected group of whitelisted employees this trial if successful could usher in a new wave of adoption with four of the largest banks in the world ranked by assets all being in china and lastly the chinese government is planning to implement the digital currency at the 2022 beijing winter olympics [Music] meanwhile in south korea the government plans to invest nearly 50 billion dollars into what they call the fourth industrial revolution the digital civilization this includes the implementation of blockchain solutions by 2025. the implementation of cryptocurrencies is not constrained to just governments in fact there appear to be many examples where digital coins are being used due to a lack of government leadership recently hong kong passed legislation which would allow governments to freeze and confiscate people's assets this has raised fears that it may be used for a tool to suppress speech particularly those who aren't fond of the chinese government soon after the laws are enacted certain stable coins coins which are tied to existing real-world currencies saw an uptick in value trading volume rose between hong kong dollars and the u.s stablecoin which is pegged to the us dollar this suggests that whoever is trading be it a handful of wealthy individuals or a mass number of the average citizens whoever it is these people in hong kong were cautious of the new law and they were taking things into their own hands by protecting their assets by converting to a more flexible and easier to transfer store of wealth brazil recently hard hit by the kovan 19 pandemic saw its economy struggle during these times the national currency dipped to a record low this caused the nation to also see a similar uptick in the trading volumes of stable coins this now seems to be a new global trend among poorly performing economies when currencies are failing and trust in government is diminishing it seems that individuals within these troubled economies are turning to cryptocurrencies to preserve their wealth even in the united states a study as reported by forbes revealed that 15 of american adults now own a form of cryptocurrency and about half of those were first-time buyers this year why would the banks disrupt themselves by introducing a digital currency that would make it easier for consumers and businesses to disintermediate the banks well the banks may not be the innovators it may be that they are the reactors that they will react when others innovate right now digital currency sounds very edgy and uh kind of alternative lifestyle but it's it's becoming the mainstream and so the banks uh the largest banks in particular are very aware of this they're investing in the technology and they will provide this service um as soon as it's profitable enough after considering the cost to them of losing some of their current business that they're going to disrupt [Music] so although it's not being discussed in the media the implementation of cryptocurrencies to create more secure assets and the blockchain to automate more of our economy seems more relevant now than ever central banks are now seriously looking into this technology while many businesses are finding innovative uses for blockchain the boom and bust of the crypto bubble in 2018 may have quelled some of these predictions but taking a deeper look it actually doesn't seem like cryptocurrencies are going away blockchain solutions keep springing up from fighting poachers to improving banking to helping citizens with unstable governments it really looks like blockchain will be an important part of our future so what do you guys think how do you think the future of blockchain and crypto will look like do you think cryptos will continue to free people from economic boundaries like in hong kong and brazil or do you think it would eventually lead to more central bank control let me know in the comment section below so for the five of you that are still watching i want to thank you for watching the whole way through this video if you do want to learn more about blockchain i'll leave a link to my blockchain and crypto series below if you want to see anything else on science technology business or history feel free to subscribe to cold fusion i'm sure you'll find a lot of interesting stuff on here anyway my name is dagogo and you've been watching cold fusion and i'll catch you again soon for the next video cheers guys have a good one [Music] it's me thinking [Music] you

Channel: ColdFusion

Views: 491,307

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Keywords: Coldfusion, TV, Dagogo, Altraide, Technology, Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, Tesla

Id: _3gbo_NinT0

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 25 2020